No Refuge but in Truth

No Refuge but in Truth, by
Goldwin Smith

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Title: No Refuge but in Truth
Author: Goldwin Smith
Release Date: October 17, 2006 [EBook #19567]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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REFUGE BUT IN TRUTH ***

Produced by Al Haines

NO REFUGE BUT IN TRUTH
BY
GOLDWIN SMITH

TORONTO
WM. TYRRELL & COMPANY
1908

COPYRIGHT, 1907-1908
BY THE
SUN PRINTING AND PUBLISHING COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, CANADA, 1906
BY
GOLDWIN SMITH

CONTENTS.
PREFACE.
I. Man and His Destiny II. New Faith Linked with Old III. The Scope
of Evolution IV. The Limit of Evolution V. Explanations VI. The
Immortality of the Soul VII. Is there to be a Revolution in Ethics?
The Religious Situation
[Transcriber's note: Because "The Religious Situation" had its own title
and verso page, it was split into a separate e-book.]

PREFACE.

The letters collected in this volume appeared, with others, in the New
York Sun, to the Editor of which the thanks of the writer for his
courtesy are due.
Appended is a paper on the same subjects commenting on one by the
late Mr. Chamberlain, since published in the North American Review.
To the Editor of the North American Review also the writer's
acknowledgments are due.
There appeared to be sufficient interest in the discussion to call for the
publication of a small edition.
The age calls for religious truth. Nine thousand persons communicated
their cravings to the Editor of the London Daily Telegraph. By their
side the present writer places himself, not a teacher, but an inquirer,
seeking for truth and open to conviction.
The position of the clergy, especially where tests are stringent, calls for
our utmost consideration. But I submit that it would not be improved
by any attempt, such as seems to be made in a work of great ability
before me, to merge the theological in the social question. Benevolence
may still be far below the Gospel mark, and the Christian faith may
suffer from its default. But the increase of it and the multiplication of
its monuments since the world has been comparatively at peace cannot
be denied; while of the distress which still calls for an increase of
Christian effort, not the whole is due to default on the part of the
wealthier classes. Idleness, vice, intemperance, improvident marriage,
play their part. Let us not be led away upon a false issue.
There is nothing for it but truth.

I.
MAN, AND HIS DESTINY.
Time has passed since I first sought access to the columns of The Sun,
ranging myself with the nine thousand who in an English journal had

craved for religious light. The movement which caused that craving has
gone on. The Churches show their sense of it. Even in that of Rome
there is a growth of "Modernism," as it is called by the Pope, who,
having lost his mediaeval preservatives of unity, strives to quell
Modernism by denunciation. Anglicanism resorts to a grand pageant of
uniformity, beneath which, however, lurk Anglo-Catholicism,
Evangelicism, and Liberalism, by no means uniform in faith. The
Protestant Churches proper, their spirit being more emotional, feel the
doctrinal movement less. But they are not unmoved, as they show by
relaxation of tests and inclination to informal if not formal union, as
well as by increasing the aesthetic and social attractions of their cult.
Wild theosophic sects are born and die. But marked is the increase of
scepticism, avowed and unavowed. It advances probably everywhere in
the track of physical science. We are confronted with the vital question
what the world would be without religion, without trust in Providence,
without hope or fear of a hereafter. Social order is threatened. Classes
which have hitherto acquiesced in their lot, believing that it was a
divine ordinance and that there would be redress and recompense in a
future state, are now demanding that conditions shall be levelled here.
The nations quake with fear of change. The leaders of humanity, some
think, may even find it necessary to make up by an increase of the
powers of government for the lost influence of religion.
Belief in the Bible as inspired and God's revelation of himself to man
seems hardly to linger in well-informed and open minds. Criticism,
history, and science have conspired to put an end to it. The authorship
of the greater part, including the most important books, is unknown.
The morality of the Old Testament